Hazed
by Stonecreek
Summary: William's dead, and Sissi knows something fishy is going on. Time to have a heart-to-heart with Ulrich to clear the air. Dark, quirky, and complete - for now.
1. Chapter 1

A.N. – Very A.U., dark, sick humor. Could be a season three piece, I guess.

**Hazed**

William was dead. The broken body, lying haphazard near the cafeteria's entrance, was kind of hard to miss. The blood pooled quickly in the dirt, seeping and gurgling its way toward the cafeteria, where not one chair remained filled as the student populace stared out the windows.

Sissi had her hand cupped over her mouth, and could not stop staring. Herb and Nick lingered behind her, conversing quietly. A bit further down by the door, the gang (minus Odd) was being a bit more open in their discussions.

"What exactly did you say to him?" Ulrich was at once confused and steadfast.

"I only told him the truth," Yumi replied tersely.

"And the truth was?"

"That I wasn't interested in fucking him, and that I believed that he wasn't, either."

"And what do you mean by that?" Jeremie cut in.

"He was trying to get to me to get to Ulrich," Yumi stated.

"The hopeless romantic takes on a whole new meaning, then," Ulrich said. "He had no hope of ever getting what he really wanted."

"So, you tell him this, and half an hour later, he jumps of the dorm's roof?" Aelita asked.

"Holy shit!" Odd had returned, and didn't like what he saw or heard one bit.

"Not so loud!" Yumi hissed, making him and Aelita shrink back. Sissi inclined her head briefly their way, and then turned to join her cronies. "There had to have been other reasons…"

"And why wouldn't he want to talk to me first?" Ulrich said. "I could have tried to work this out with him, find a common ground we could live with."

"You know him, all spur of the moment leading to rash decisions," Yumi said.

"Yeah…" Ulrich trailed off as Jeremie pointed out Jim coming out with the principal. They gave pause to look at the body, but neither could stomach it for long. They made their way into the cafeteria to address the students.

"We have called the police, but before they get here, we need to know – did any of you see exactly what happened?" the principal asked. A chorus of no's greeted them. A couple of students had heard a dull thud, but no one had seen him actually jump from outside. Everyone had been down eating dinner.

"Very well, then. Jim here will escort you back to your rooms," Principal Delmas said. "Day students, please return home and inform nobody of what had happened. The matter will need to be thoroughly investigated, and Mr. Dunbar's parents informed."

"So he is, really…" Millie trailed off, choked up.

"Yes, unfortunately."

Jim caught her as she fainted. "Now everyone, follow me. You're to stay put until the police are through."

"C'mon, let's go. My room," Jeremie said.

"I'll call you when I get home, then I'll sneak out," Yumi said. They parted ways, grim expressions on their faces.

xxxx

After Jim had left, Odd and Ulrich had crept out of their room to Jeremie's. A few minutes later, an out-of-breath Yumi joined the boy Einstein to discuss matters further. The door shut soundlessly behind Yumi, who pushed the lock for extra caution, and opened the Pandora's Box they'd all been thinking about but couldn't say while in public.

"How much do we tell them?"

"As little as possible, obviously, but we can't be silent, either," Jeremie responded.

"That won't go over well when the police find us together like this," Ulrich said.

"True, but we have one thing on our side - we didn't kill him," Odd said.

"Yes, but we could have possibly prevented it," Aelita said.

"And that's the problem. Homicide through negligence is a crime, too," Jeremie pushed up his glasses. "But we don't tell them our secret, and they don't know that."

"And if we tell the truth, they'll find out we were the last people to be with him from some student.," Ulrich sounded really depressed.

"I did kinda run off fast with him between classes," Odd shrugged. "It was a pain tracking him down, though."

"But we can't give away Lyoko!" Yumi was barely containing an outburst. "They find that, we're screwed."

"We know, Yumi," Aelita patted the Japanese girl on the shoulder. "We still have things to do. We can't let anyone stop us."

"So, what do we make up?" Jeremie suggested. The others gaped. "We tell them as much truth as possible, but we can't tell them how he truly died. We'd all be arrested, and Odd…"

"I'd be jailed for sure," he said. "Being found with the body isn't exactly something to clear your name…"

"We all probably have prints or DNA on the body," Ulrich intoned.

"How can you be so calm about this?" Yumi had resisted, but needed to vent. "Our actions have led to the death of a student…no, a friend." She started crying softly. "How can your consciences cope? Aelita I could understand, but…"

"But what?" Aelita was livid. "Just because I spent some time as a virtual being, I'm out of tune with human life? I hurt, too. I'm scared. But I know enough to fight it, to keep on going. You have to as well. For all of us. One of us breaks, and it's over."

"What, you think we're going to get hauled off and interrogated?" Odd asked.

"Anything's possible," Ulrich deadpanned. The room grew silent as Yumi calmed down as everyone thought.

"What if we tell them what we were talking about earlier?" Aelita said.

"That'd keep everyone but me and Yumi safe," Ulrich said. "A lover's triangle is tricky to sort out."

"But it never happened like that, exactly. I was bullshitting in front of Sissi, mostly for effect," Yumi said. "Sure, William had some quirks about him, but him going through me for Ulrich? That's ridiculous."

"But by saying it publicly, we have targets on our backs," Ulrich said. "It doesn't matter how much was fabricated." He paused. "How much DID you fabricate?"

"I did turn him down recently, just not today. And he seemed awfully OK with it, so I took it to mean he was interested in someone else besides me maybe," Yumi exhaled. "I ran with it to mean you when put on the spot. I didn't know you knew about it."

"I didn't; I was faking, too." Ulrich looked sheepish. "We had to think of something for the suicide angle to look real. A lost love seemed good, and you were the perfect candidate."

"But by doing so, you're now at risk," Aelita said. They all nodded and went back to the other problem – what to say when questioned. Another stretch of silence passed, only interrupted by Odd.

"Why didn't we discuss this when it first happened?" he queried.

"We were all sort of freaked out and not thinking straight," Jeremie said. "We've had an hour to mull this over. The hard part should be over – we've done all that we can to make it look like he jumped. But we need to get our stories straight."

"If they look into his immediate past, they're going to see some strange occurrences anyway," Ulrich said. "He's been acting off since he found out."

"It was his choice to stay," Yumi said. "He dug his own grave and now he's lying in it."

"Yumi! Pick a better saying next time," Aelita scolded.

"I liked the lover's spat thing, though…" Odd said out of the blue.

Both girls rounded on him. "Pervert!"

"So?" Odd flashed a brilliant smile that shut them up. It disappeared as he continued. "I must be, to volunteer to throw him off the roof."

"It's not your fault you're nimble and agile in real life, too," Ulrich said. "I did goad you with a skinny comment."

"So?" Odd said again. "In one way or another, we're all in this together. We're all to blame."

"But will the police see it as such?" Aelita asked, cautiously. "It was set up so it looked as if he killed himself. What's to point to foul play in all this?"

"Fingerprints," Odd said.

"But do any of you have police records?" Aelita asked. They shook their heads no. "So why should you be concerned? Why should any of us be?"

"They'll go through the school database and get them," Jeremie said matter-of-factly.

"Could we alter our fingerprints?" Yumi asked. Just then, someone knocked on the door. Jim's voice could be heard: "We need everyone down in the cafeteria again. We got a late dinner prepared, and the Principal wants to speak…" his voice faded as he walked down the hall, knocking on the other doors. Jeremie peeked his head out. Jim had gone.

"If it's questioning, go with the lover's thing, Yumi; it's all we got," Jeremie looked defeated.

"Fine." Yumi sounded anything but.

As grim as earlier, they made their way down to the cafeteria. The police were there – talking to the Principal and outside cleaning up the crime scene. William was no longer there. The students were being directed to sit at some tables by a makeshift stage while dinner was laid out.

"Well, let's see if they added 2 and two to get four or five." Jeremie said as they sat down.

The Principal motioned for quiet and received it. "The police have done a thorough investigation and concluded that William's death was a suicide." A gasp went up in the cafeteria, though that had been the general consensus earlier that day amongst them. "His family will be here tomorrow to sort out matters, and a funeral will be held Saturday. Classes will be cancelled until then. You are encouraged to attend the funeral if at all possible. That is all. Try to enjoy your meals and get back to bed. I hope we can all get through this – together," With that, Mr. Delmas stepped off the stage and the students began hushed conversations anew.

"It _worked_," Odd said.

"Apparently," Jeremie let the relief he felt to flood his voice.

"No love triangles for me," Yumi sang. The group looked over at her askance. "Guess I'm just de-stressing."

"We're in the clear, guys. Lyoko's safe," Ulrich said. "XANA tried to fuck us over, but we got through it."

"It'd be in bad taste to celebrate, but it's what I feel like doing," Aelita said.

"We can do that later. We have a funeral to attend this weekend. We lost one of our own," Jeremie said. Reluctant nods followed his words. "We did get through this – together."

And a table over, Sissi watched as the gang dug into their food, a malicious smile on her face.


	2. Chapter 2

A.N. – The second part of Hazed has the same general warnings – it's dark. Less violence but more language within. I do not own Code Lyoko. And the dedication goes out to Rodrincubus at Lyokofreak. Sorry for forgetting you in chapter 1.

Nearly the whole school body had assembled in the auditorium for the funeral. The casket containing William's body was closed, at the request of his family. They sat in the front row, with the faculty behind them and students filling the rest of the seat. Everyone wore black. For Yumi, this was nothing unusual. Other members of the group were having a harder time adjusting.

"This is so not me," Odd complained. "I can be somber and still have my quirks. It's not fair." Odd knew a change of clothes would be in order, but when he had been told to take the purple spot in his hair out by order of the principal, he'd fought tooth and nail and failed to keep it. So he sat, hair flattened down and all blonde.

Aelita could do nothing for her pink hair, but she was in a black dress, as was Yumi. The boys had donned suits ties. No one was comfortable, despite being almost in the back of the auditorium. That, too, had caused debate. They wanted to show support for William, but it might've been a risk, so they hung back.

A hush fell over everyone assembled as a man got up to the podium. He spoke of William as creative, kind, a go-getter. To the gang, no words could ever capture what William was all about. William often could not come up with the words himself, so what made this man an authority on him?

The gang lost interest as more people came up and heaped praise on the dearly departed. Odd shuffled his feet, and Aelita looked lost. Ulrich was whispering very quietly to Yumi, and Jeremie stared off into space. They all internally wanted the same thing – to have this over with.

So, when the end finally came, and the hearse came to take William to his burial place, only then did the gang finally drop the seriousness. They relaxed in their normal spot, chatting and smiling amicably for the first time since the incident. That all stopped when Sissi strode around the corner.

"Pretty chirpy, aren't you guys?" she said, inclining her head as if confused. "A friend of yours, if I'm not mistaken, was just memorialized. Shouldn't you be gripped by sadness or something?"

"No more than you, Sissi," Ulrich said. "And you don't seem that woebegone either."

"Oh, but I am," Sissi's toying tone was lost as she went on. "William's death was a great tragedy."

"We feel the same way, Sissi," Aelita said. "We all will miss him greatly."

"But not for my reasons," Sissi said.

"Don't tell me you were fawning after him as well," Yumi was incredulous. "I thought that was reserved for Ulrich."

"You know damn well what I mean!" Sissi growled. "Don't play dumb, and don't go thinking I am, either."

"We don't think you're dumb," Odd started. Sissi nearly smiled at him until he opened his mouth again. "We know you are!" The gang busted up laughing, and Sissi scowled. That made Odd laugh harder. Sissi, in turn, backhanded him.

"You need to feel some of the pain you put him through, you freaks," Sissi bit out. Ulrich jumped up to restrain her while Yumi took a look at the bruise on Odd's face.

"Whatever drove William to do what he did, I don't think any of us can truly feel that pain," Ulrich said. Aelita nodded, while Odd tried to hide the hurt in his eyes as Yumi steadied him.

"Sure you could," Sissi said logically. "You just…"

"STOP!" Jeremie interrupted, glaring at Sissi. "We continue this in private." The group looked momentarily stunned as they filed inside. Sissi alone had a triumphant smile on her face.

xxxx

Once sequestered in Jeremie's room, a hush fell. Sissi had seemed so proud just a moment ago, but looked now as if she were having second thoughts. Jeremie grasped upon this at once.

"OK, spill," he said in a commanding tone. Sissi bowed her head and muttered something about William swearing her to secrecy. "And what does that matter now that he's not here? We all have questions we'd like answered, I'm sure. It's a little give and take on both sides. So, start giving."

"What do you want me to tell you that you don't already know?" Sissi tried to escape her predicament again, but Jeremie wouldn't stand for it. He looked ready to go on a tirade, but Ulrich stepped in.

"Please. It's for the best if you tell us what you were going to outside." Ulrich looked over at Jeremie with questioning in his eyes. Jeremie's widened in response, and Ulrich turned his attention that way. "You knew, but we obviously didn't. Are you holding out on us?"

Jeremie looked stunned. "Not in that way, I assure you. I stopped Sissi from divulging important information outside that I felt she might have known."

"And how did you know this?" Yumi asked.

"He must've seen us," Sissi breathed.

"Doing what?" Odd finally had a reason to smirk. Sissi blushed in response, but it was of anger, not embarrassment.

"Don't you get any ideas, cat boy!" she shrieked, then covered her mouth. The group turned as one to her.

"Run that one by me again?" Odd asked, serious for once.

"You heard what I said," she bit out.

"So I was right," Jeremie concluded. "And wrong."

"You're losing us, Einstein," Ulrich deadpanned.

"I saw William and Sissi outside while eating lunch in my room," Jeremie said. "So I was right in my hunch about Sissi, but wrong about William and his resolve. From what Sissi let slip, I can gather William lost his cool and sought some advice from someone he felt he could trust at the time."

"And that meant Sissi?" Aelita tried to keep the incredulity out of her voice.

"You have a problem with that?" Sissi sneered. "Yeah, he talked to me. Pretty unbelievable stuff, too. But, we're here for a reason, aren't we? That unbelievable stuff, right?"

"Pretty much," Jeremie conceded. "How much did he tell you?"

"Well, he told me that you guys wanted him to fight this evil thing, and he sounded really worried that he wouldn't come back," she started.

"Did you believe him?" Yumi asked.

"With you guys, I never really know." Sissi sighed. "You're always up to something, some prank. And the way William was talking, it sounded like you were at it again."

"Did whatever he said sound that crazy?" Odd asked.

"You're one to talk about crazy," Sissi said. "But yeah, he mentioned possession and monsters and made it all sound like a big virtual reality game. If that's what you all have been doing, I'm going to be disappointed."

"Well, sorry to say, but…" Ulrich began, but was cut off by Aelita and Jeremie together. They pulled him aside, while the remainder of those in the room rolled their eyes.

"She doesn't really know," Jeremie hissed. "Why tell her?"

"I dunno, 'cause she deserves to know how he really died?" Ulrich whispered back.

"But she thinks she knows," Aelita said. "That's all that matters."

"But she'll still be suspicious," Ulrich intoned.

"And always will be. Now drop it," Jeremie turned around and stared eye-to-eye with Sissi.

"So, William told you he was off to fight some virtual possessed monsters and was worried about coming back?" Sissi nodded. "There's your answer. He probably was waxing poetic about the demons in his head."

"But, then why would he…" Sissi began.

"We may never know," Aelita said.

"But, in the lunchroom…" Sissi said. "You said…"

"What we said is inconsequential," Yumi interrupted. "Can't you take what you've been told at face value and leave it be?"

"But that's not fair," Sissi protested.

"That isn't the issue here," Ulrich said. "Have we sated your interest for now?"

"I suppose," Sissi mumbled.

"There's just one thing I'm unclear on," Jeremie began. "I saw William talking to you, but why did he pick you, out of everyone, to confide in during his darkest time?"

"That's what he swore me to secrecy about, even more so than the crazy monster thing," Sissi looked defiant. "As if I'm going to break his trust now."

""I guess that's your choice, but whatever he told you could provide us all some answers," Jeremie looked over his glasses at the principal's daughter.

"Common interests. That's it," Sissi said.

"So, what, you both go jelly-legged when Ulrich's around?" Odd grinned and winked at Sissi.

"You insensitive…" Sissi stormed out of the room in a huff. The other occupants watched her go, curious yet relieved.

"It could've gone worse," Aelita began.

"I, for one, feel the attack on my character was totally unwarranted," Odd tried his best to look pious, but his demeanor would not allow it to look convincing.

"In all seriousness," Yumi started, looking over to Odd. "We know now our trust has been broken once. Can we really risk it being broken again?"

"It could be worse for us if Sissi starts spreading misinformation rather than the truth around campus," Jeremie said.

"So, should we really tell her?" Aelita asked.

Ulrich looked ready to say something, but he too turned and left the room. If the rest of the group was going to waffle over this decision, he'd just make it himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. –** I recently rediscovered this in my old private messages on Lyoko Freak. It's been three years since I wrote this, and five years in total since I started this story, so going back and editing this was fun and made me look at the story with new vision. The old author's note I wrote is below for the still-relevant parts. A new A.N. is at the end of the chapter.

I'm finally finishing this fic. Two seasons of CL have aired since I last wrote on this, so consider this story definitely AU now. The rating is earned manly from language, as the violence is over and done with. Oh, and other stuff, but you'll get to that if you read on. Oh, and I don't own CL, and do not profit from this fic.

**Hazed, Chapter**** 3**

Ulrich swiftly made his way down the empty hall. He had to talk to Sissi, to sort out everything. He had a hunch what was eating at her, at it wasn't just William divulging the secret of Lyoko.

When he got to Sissi's room, the door was closed, and music was audible through the heavy oak. Ulrich wasted no time in knocking a rapid staccato against the frame.

"Go away!" came a barely held together voice from the other side. Ulrich ignored this and knocked faster and harder. The music shut off after a minute of this, and the door was weakly pulled open.

Sissi looked as if she'd been crying. Ulrich wasn't quite prepared for this, but he soon composed himself and asked, nicer than usual, if he could come in.

"Why would you want to do that?" Sissi retorted.

"Can't a guy just want to sit down and talk?" At Sissi's incredulous look, Ulrich added an, "Honest." Sissi acquiesced and patted her bed, which Ulrich sat down on, and Sissi joined him.

"So to what do I owe this honor, Ulrich?" Sissi tried to muster up a sneer, but only managed a half-frown.

"You know why I'm here. We need to talk," Ulrich replied as patiently as he could.

"Why, so you can go report it back to your friends?"

"No. I'm here on my own, for my own reasons," Ulrich started. "Though it would be nice if misconstrued events wouldn't get spread around by a certain someone." At this Ulrich raised an eyebrow in Sissi's direction.

"I wouldn't," Sissi said after a while. "I'm too involved."

"But how? I just want to know how you fit in this…" Ulrich's resolve faded, and his voice broke slightly. "…this whole fucking mess."

Sissi looked askance at Ulrich, bangs shielding her eyes. Ulrich could tell she was debating whether he could trust her, so he gently laid an arm around her shoulder.

"I promise, no harm no ill intent will come of this. I just want answers, for peace of mind. Both of us, to certain extents, have gotten embroiled in some scary things lately. Mutual understanding, I think, will help us both."

Sissi seemed to visibly relax into Ulrich as he spoke, as if her walls were crumbling. Finally, she said, "All right. What do you want to know?" Then she smiled for the first time since Ulrich arrived. "You're better at this than Jeremie."

"I'd hope so," Ulrich said, and the pair tittered nervously. "So, you deserve some truths. And Jeremie wouldn't like it if I told you. But I want to know what William told you — all of it — in return."

"All business now, aren't you?" Sissi sounded tired in her ribbing. "Fine. Where to start?"

"How about why you stormed off all of a sudden?" Ulrich intoned.

"You sure get to the heart of the matter," Sissi replied dryly. "Tell me what you think."

"Now who's doing the interrogating?" Ulrich grinned half-heartedly before mellowing. "Something about Odd's jelly legs comment got to you, didn't it?" Sissi nodded. "So, what was it? A bit too close to home?"

"Not just that," Sissi began slowly. "William and me, we really did have stuff in common – more than I thought. But when you guys treated it all like a joke, like you always do, I'd had enough. So I left."

"But that's not all of it," Ulrich pressed. Sissi snorted at him, but continued.

"We both felt like unaccepted outsiders. I guess that's why we first started talking, oh, a month or so ago. He's deep, if you get past the flaky exterior. Was…" she amended. "A great guy. But so full of conflicting emotions. He had so much love…" Sissi trailed off, a small blush on her cheeks.

"Did you…" Ulrich ventured, but Sissi cut him off with a vehement, "NO!"

"He never hit on me, and we never did anything. I did become his sounding pole, and I in turn confided in him. He was so confused about why you guys wouldn't accept him, but especially you and Yumi in particular."

"Shouldn't it be Yumi first? He always seemed so smitten with her," Ulrich couldn't help the slight waver of anger from creeping into his voice.

"Oh he was," Sissi seemed comfortable now, like she was merely dishing schoolyard dirt. "But then, he was that way with almost everyone." Sissi's look and tone suddenly changed. "Do you know the first person here at Kadic William hit on?"

"It wasn't Yumi?" Ulrich asked, a bit surprised.

"He never said he'd actually hit on Yumi, but he sure flirted with her," Sissi smiled ruefully. "It was Christophe M'Bala."

"The kid in the headphones? Really? How'd that go?"

"Chris smacked William upside the head and stalked away. From then on, William decided to tone his advances down, at least on that end."

"So he's interested in guys?" Ulrich carefully said, burying any surprise from the turn the conversation had taken.

"And girls. He was really hard up for Yumi." Sissi added helpfully.

"That's blunt."

"And you." Sissi's voice had shrunk to almost inaudible decibels.

"What?" Ulrich managed.

"I think it was because of the both of you that he agreed to join you guys in…, well, whatever it was."

"Is. And wow," was all Ulrich could say.

"So, I spilled. How about you?" Sissi unconsciously batted her eyes at Ulrich, who didn't notice.

"I sorta just did, a bit," Ulrich hung his head a bit until he noticed Sissi hadn't heard that one little word before wow, so he backpedaled. "Now just a minute; I'm still processing this," Ulrich paused. All he could say after it was, "Odd was really insensitive, wasn't he? If only he knew…"

"But that's the point!" Sissi was adamant. "He didn't want you to know, or anyone, after what had happened. He walled off that part of himself, an only let it out for me."

"Why me? Why not Odd?" Ulrich was grasping at straws.

"You're going off stereotypes, dear," Sissi reprimanded.

"Sorry." and Ulrich meant it.

"Would you honestly have treated him at all well if you knew that not only was he hitting on your crush, but he wanted a piece of you as well? Would you still have understood, still have included him in your gang?"

"No, probably not." Ulrich paused again. "Does everyone know of my crush on Yumi?" It felt weird saying it aloud, and that was only compounded by who he was saying aloud to.

"When one spends as much time studying you as I did, it's obvious," Ulrich looked ready to say something, but Sissi went on. "I'm over that. And you, for the most part. I just want to be treated with some respect, acknowledgement. Friendliness, even." Ulrich nodded at each of Sissi's verbal bullet points, but couldn't dodge the last one. "Now weren't you about to start spilling, or were you just pumping me for information all along?"

Ulrich had to good grace to look sheepish. "I can sure work on that. As for that…" And Ulrich pulled himself together and told Sissi how William really died.

**A.N. 2 –** Originally, this was going to be the concluding chapter; it still may be. But the idea of the next chapter being the converse of this one, with Ulrich divulging Lyoko to Sissi and not RTTP-ing her, has appeal to me. I sorta like this as is, just to say this story is finally over, so it might be a while before I change my mind. Thanks for reading.


End file.
